Movies

Hideo Kojima on Ghost in the Shell

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12 April 2017

By Alex Khalil

Yep, the guy who gave us Metal Gear Solid has shared his take on the Ghost in the Shell reboot.

In an essay he wrote for Glixel, Rolling Stone’s video game outlet, he said: “The respect that the movie shows in mimicking the anime is unquestionable. As a real fan of the original works, though, I can’t help but feel that the production was trapped in the shell of the original, and as a result, it fails to come into its own.”

The game developer said the game was “surprisingly faithful” to the original, which was released in 1995, and that it recreates many of the scenes with the same visual style of the anime. But, he agreed with the majority of critics who said the film loses the core message of the original, which was, what does it mean to be human?

“This new movie replaces that theme with a far simpler question: ‘who am I?’ Without spoiling the plot, it’s basically The Bourne Identity in a futuristic world connected by a vast information network. It’s a story of the heroine played by Scarlett Johansson on a quest to find her identity.

“Upon leaving the theater and returning to the real world, the characters stay behind, locked in their ‘shell,’ unable to break free.”

A fair assessment, and it seems to be the consensus among critics and fans. It’s a good action movie. But it is lacking some of the finer points on society and humanising its characters.

In other film news, Rogue One is out on DVD now!

So yay!

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